1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the arts of intelligent merchandise displays, automatic inventory determination and product information exchange.
2. Description of the Related Art
Shopping experiences had by consumers when shopping “online” using the Internet are still distinctly different from shopping experiences in real “bricks-and-mortar” stores. Due to the limitations of transmitting images and photographs of products over the Internet and the extreme convenience of being able to physically touch, pick up, and look at real products in a real store, many shopper still favor shopping in bricks-and-mortar stores.
For example, the shoe display as shown FIG. 1 is typical of displays found in stores, which include a base display (32) and possibly additional display tiers (34) upon which a plurality of items (35, 36) for sale are displayed. This general display paradigm is used for a variety of product types, including clothing, electronics, books, etc.
An alternate display fixture to such a freestanding fixture as shown in FIG. 1 are shelf-based fixtures and wall-based fixtures, such as slatwalls and gridwall fixtures. These fixtures, as well, offer the ability to display multiple items for sale which can be quickly and conveniently scanned by a consumer passerby, and handled if desired by the consumer.
Turning to FIG. 2, two examples are given of display accessories for such retail fixtures, including shoe risers (21) and shoe “faceouts” (22). The risers, typically made of clear acrylic or plastic, allow a shoe to be placed on top of the riser, which is then placed on the surface or tier of the display fixture. This allows more vertical dimensions to be created in the display beyond the number of tiers in the fixture. The faceouts allow a shoe to be mounted on a slatwall or gridwall in a similar fashion. Common faceouts and risers provide means for holding descriptive placards and price tags, and may be imprinted with a brand or logo. For other types of merchandise, such as books or electronics, similar display accessories are available to give vertical position to individual product samples. All of these display fixtures and accessories are well-known in the art.
As a consumer passerby approaches a display fixture, he or she attains a vantage point (31) from which the display designer or arranger intended the products to be viewed, as shown in FIG. 3 in a perspective from above such a display fixture. From this vantage point, the consumer may visually survey all of the displayed items (35, 36), possibly pick up and examine one or more items, and if interested, contact a sales person for more information. The general paradigm of merchandise display can be applied equally well to window displays.
At this point, though, the shopping experience in a bricks-and-mortar store takes on a disadvantage compared to the online shopping experience. Continuing with our example of shoe shopping, a consumer finds a shoe sample on a display fixture which he or she would like to “try on”, or about which he or she has questions. Now, the consumer must find an available sales person, which may take considerable time, to ask any questions he or she may have. Or, if the consumer wants to “try on” a pair of shoes or buy a pair of shoes in his or her size, the sales person must check inventory for that model and size, retrieve the item from stock, and proceed with the sale. If the consumer has detailed questions, such as “How long is the warranty on this product?”, or “Is this real leather on the upper?”, etc., it may take quite some time for the sales person to retrieve the needed information.
By contrast, during an online shopping experience, this phase is much more convenient to the consumer. He or she may simply input his or her size and/or retrieve full technical specifications for the product immediately, without the need to wait for a sales person to assist him or her. Additionally, if the consumer wants to save a copy of the information in order to wait to purchase the item later, he or she may simply print the information from his or her computer and save it for later, while in the bricks-and-mortar store, rarely are extra copies of product information or brochures available nor are copiers readily available.
This often causes many consumers to browse a physical store to survey all the products available, and to later make their purchases online for items they have previously seen. As is well known in the retail sales industry, any time a sale can be completed in a real store, opportunities to make collateral sales as well as to establish an actual personal rapport with the customer are had, but when a customer physically leaves a store, these opportunities are lost.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a system and method which assists a consumer in determining if an item displayed on an display fixture is in stock according to his or her preferences, such as style, color or size. Further, there is a need in the art for this system and method to conveniently provide product information for later review by the consumer.